I don't know what to call this problem, since I've never seen anything like it, so I'll just explain what's going on.I installed a new Motherboard in my computer, since the old one failed outright (wouldn't post). The new one is an MSI Z77-G45.Ever since I mounted that board and installed a fresh copy of windows 7. Some weird things have been happening...1. Programs randomly crash. Chrome tabs, for instance, will crash to the "Aww snap!" message like 200 times a day. Installers will crash, internet explorer crashes (don't ask why I use that sometimes), and its always something like "This program has stopped working, check for a solution?", and in some cases the program that crashes gets corrupted, so I have to reinstall it! My copy of Skyrim had that happen to it several times, so I had to reverify it with Steam.2. My USB 3.0 external disconnects and reconnects like once every 15 minutes, and sometimes it says it needs to be formatted to work.3. Zip files get corrupted after being downloaded. This one is hard to explain. They just randomly do, I'll try to retrieve something from the zip and get a message like the file is broken.

Basically, my windows operating system is crashing programs at random, corrupting programs/zips, and disconnecting my USB 3.0 drive at will. Anyone have any idea what this could be? Corrupted user account maybe? Windows is installed on an SSD, btw, if that means anything.

Let's get the obvious out of the way: you did make sure your motherboard drivers are correct and up to date? Just to rule out RAM, go run MemTest (not the Windows memory checker). If nothing else is new besides the motherboard and you know all the other components work, then we can blame the motherboard.

To LatiosXT: Yes, I realize that updating the firmware of the SSD may require a fresh install of Windows, but who's to say that a reinstall (clean) might not be needed in the end, eventually?

As for anything else, it does (from my previous experience) appear to be more a problem with memory. Have you tested all of the memory sticks individually and let memTest86+ run several passes through each of the sticks? The reason I ask this is because I had to do this with a pair of brand new Corsair memory sticks last year, only to discover that one of the two new sticks had a failing memory address. The faulty stick took nearly three hours of testing with memTest86+ before the failing memory address was located and identified, and I wound up having to reinstall Windows on the machine (due to the data loss caused by the failing memory address).

To LatiosXT: Yes, I realize that updating the firmware of the SSD may require a fresh install of Windows, but who's to say that a reinstall (clean) might not be needed in the end, eventually?

Plan for the worst, hope for the best. If an action causes undesirable consequences, you better prepare for it. Hence I don't like updating the firmware unless you can rule everything else out. It's like updating BIOS: you're really not supposed to do it unless you have a real issue that can be solved by updating it (though it's safer these days to do it anyway).

Anyway, power supply issues can mask as other hardware faults. For instance, I had a hard drive that was clicking and refusing to come up, but had no reason to believe it would just poop out like that (it was past the mark of "sudden failures"). Turned out the power supply was failing. But honestly, if the system worked fine with the last motherboard and that's the only thing you changed, most of my finger pointing is on the motherboard.

Alright, so I figured out it WAS a memory problem. Ran memtest86, found out the last of my 4 sticks had 109 errors on Test 5. So, I switched the sticks around in different spots. Ran memtest again, came up all clear and normal. Started up windows.. as I was trying to make this post I get a bluescreen "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGE_AREA", which apparently is related to faulty RAM.

I'm going to continue using my PC and see if this reoccurs and post my findings later. Ultimately, if it happens again, I'll just replace that stick. Where can I get the best deal on a 4gb 1600mhz Corsair vengeance stick?

ALSO: Would there be an issue/performance loss if I replace this 4gig stick with an 8gig? Therefore, having 3x4gb and 1x8gb? (20gb total)

Theoretically, there would be a performance loss if you replaced the defective 4 GB stick with an 8 G stick, as most modern motherboards support dual-channel, tri-channel, and quad-channel memory configurations and require that, in order for those configurations to work, all memory sticks be the same capacity, speed, timings, manufacturer, etc. In reality, unless you are actually running benchmark applications, you probably won't notice much of a performance hit whatsoever. As for good deals on memory, I recommend NewEgg. They are usually lower in price than what you would pay if you bought the memory directly from the manufacturer.

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